RE: How did Real Madrid & Barcelona perform after Ronaldo & Messi left?
It's impossible to talk about Barcelona without talking about their financial situation (i.e. the reason Messi had to leave). Barcelona are $1.5bn (not a typo, that's $1,500,000,000) in debt. They have no choice but to sign players who not so long ago, weren't good enough for the Premier League (Luuk de Jong for example was a massive disappointment at Newcastle).
Real Madrid will fair better because their debt's only about $300m so much more manageable.
I don't expect to see Barcelona challenging at the top of La Liga for quite a long time into the future. Definitely not whilst Covid is preventing 100,000 fans from buying tickets and sitting in Camp Nou. And once they fail to qualify for the Champions League and the millions in revenue that comes with this, things will only get worse.
So it's not so much the departure of Messi that's the problem there, more that they're not allowed to spend any money in replacing him which is why they're so dependent upon the likes of Gavi and Atsu to step up from their academy and make their mark. Which is a big ask.
I still believe that with players like (de pay, coutinho, dembele, Fati, de jong, busquest, Pedri, Alba, pique, dest, and ter stegen.) with the quality theses players have Barcelona shouldn’t be that tough position. However a great number of these players after recovering from injury get injured again.
When you look at when Ronaldo left. Madrid struggled so they made lots of signings like (hazard, jovic, rodrygo) currently all these players are not in the starting 11. So I believe with time the Barcelona team will settle it doesn’t just require them to sign lots of players because there is a lot of quality in their squad.
A lot of them are old too and well past their best. Depay's the stand out in that list and Fati could be great but not yet. And like you say, so many injuries. And none of them have been able to get back to their best following these injuries. They didn't like Koeman so it was understandable how badly they played then - it'll be interesting to see what Xavi can get out of them. I think they'll be a selling club for a while now though - they have to be.
Don't forget Vinicius Jr. he's really shone this season. And who's that kid they've bought in midfield - Camavinga? He's some talent if he can get going.
From the start I knew Vinicius was going to be incredibly last season how to finish was his problem looks like this season he has found his shooting boots.
At first I didn’t like that camavinga guy because I didn’t follow or watch him play in Rennes. But seeing him play in a few matches with Madrid am convinced he’s got talent.
I haven't seen him much but he always looks so confident and willing to try something. At a time when Real Madrid don't have many Galacticos or Real Madrid's types of players, he certainly seems like one.
Yah that’s true. What do you think about Anthony?? (Ajax player)
I've not seen him play yet so don't really know. I've seen him getting linked with some big clubs and with Ajax doing so well in the Champions League, I hope to see him at some point. Are you a fan?
Yah I am. I hope you do see him play, because he is very good.